The Essay

The college essay is one of the most important parts of your application. It might be the closest you come to being a real person for your admissions officer. So much of your application is just ticking off boxes—grades, test scores, extracurriculars, volunteer work, etc.—but your essay is YOU on paper. Let them know who you really are; do NOT write what you think they want to hear.

The Admissions Process

A team of admissions officers will split up hundreds of applications between them. One admissions officer will take a stack of applications and sort through them, looking for individuals who will SUCCEED at their school. That is their job, to find people who will graduate from their school, make the school look good, and become professionally successful enough to donate to the school as alumni.

You want your essay to make you memorable, so you end up on the top of that stack on a short list of students whom the admissions officer will try to sell to the rest of the admissions council.

The Prompts

Most of you will be using the Common App essay prompts accepted by most schools. You will write one main essay (650 words or less) and possibly some shorter essays for specific schools. You won’t know exactly what the shorter essays will be until you set up a Common App account and start selecting schools to apply to. 

My Job

The biggest job I usually have helping students write their college essays is convincing you that you have something interesting and unique to say, that you have a story to tell. You do; go ahead and fight me on it… you will lose. I am undefeated. 

For this workshop, you will need to get comfortable with editing on Google Docs using suggested edits and comments. Trust me, it’s easy, but here is a quick video to get you started. 

1. Each essay will have a word limit. Not a big deal: write your first/rough draft without consideration for the word limit. If you end up short, we will figure out where to add; if you end up too long, we will figure out where to edit it down.

2. You can often re-use well-written essays for many different schools, with some minor tweaking and customization. Work smarter, not harder.

3. Schools love when you show that you have done your research. Name drop classes you might want to attend, sports or clubs you want to join, or specific programs that interest you. Look on their website for information about the school! This will mostly end up in supplemental essays.

4. They want to know how you will contribute to the college community. Look for and consider the opportunities, and then express interest in writing!

5. Many essays come very close to being cliche (same old tired story everyone tells: first to go to college; immigrant family; my family went there; troubled past; etc.), but cliches are easy to fix. Just tell the story from your point of view with descriptive details that couldn’t be anyone else’s. The cliche part comes when you are too general.

6. I know you may not like to talk or write about yourself, but you have to here. Just remember, you will most likely never meet the person who reads your essay! It’s relatively anonymous. Just go for it. (And, when it comes to writing, like a doctor or lawyer, I am trained to remain objective and impartial.

Start by answering the following questions:

1. What schools are you looking at?

2. Any thoughts on a major or are you undecided? 

3. Have you written any college essays yet?

4. Besides academics, what are you looking for in a college community and experience?

Then, read the common app prompts: https://www.commonapp.org/apply/essay-prompts

Which prompt stands out to you? The prompts cover a wide variety of topics, and the final prompt is relatively open. What story will capture your reader and convince them of your future success at their school?

Pick a prompt and start writing!

Understand that it is ok for it to be a ROUGH rough draft. First drafts are just about getting your thoughts out of your head and onto the paper. My brother goes so far as to call it the “vomit draft”—once you get it up, you will feel better.

Work the process:

If at any point during your rough draft you get stuck or need help, reach out and for help! We can meet and discuss over email, live document editing, and/or video calls.

Once you are done with a rough draft, I will read your essay, ask questions, make comments, and make suggested edits.

I will return the essay for you to review and revise.

This is YOUR essay. So, if I make a suggestion and you don’t like it or it doesn’t sound like you, you will defend and explain how your writing works or was intended to work. This type of back and forth really helps get the best essays. 

We repeat the process until you have a marvelous gem of a polished essay.

That’s it… Get writing!